This Friday at KPS ...

Kingswood Photographic Society is absolutely delighted to welcome Pam Lane ARPS, DPAGB, EFIAP & Eddy Lane ARPS, DPAGB, EFIAP, as their speakers on Friday, 11^th March who will be giving an illustrated talk entitled In the Footsteps of Shackleton.

Pam & Eddy say:  “We are Wildlife and Travel photographers, and we love visiting some of the wildest places on earth. While we try to capture our experiences with our images, sometimes a moment is so magical that we simply put our cameras down and just take in the complete environment.

This Talk combines images from our two major expeditions to the South Atlantic visiting the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica.  As well as recording the Wildlife and the Landscapes, we visited some of the sites that Shackleton visited during his epic expedition of 1914 to 1916, and these are featured throughout the talk.

It is amazing that at this time exactly 100 years ago, Shackleton and his men were in a desperate fight for survival.  On 28th October 1915 their ship Endurance (which had been trapped in ice for many months) had finally sunk – 3 lifeboats had been saved.  For the next five months they were at the mercy of the Ice and the Southern Ocean until on 17th April 1916 they finally reached dry Land, Elephant Island and brief respite.

This promises to be a superb evening so we hope to see you there.

Kingswood PS meet Fridays from 7.30pm to around 9.30pm at St Barnabas Church Hall, Warmley, Bristol BS30 5JJ.  Visitors are most welcome and the cost for this evening is £3.00.

AN ARTICLE PRODUCED BY EDDY & PAM TO GIVE FURTHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION IS INCLUDED BELOW …

On one of our long haul photographic trips we traced some of the journey that Shackleton and his men had to undergo on the ill fated expedition to Antarctica 1914 to 1916.

We were following “the Boss’s” footsteps in reverse. We started in Buenos Aires, flew down to Trelew, where we embarked on the Andrea. From there we sailed to the Falklands, where we anchored for a few days, then had a three day voyage to South Georgia for a further few days. We then sailed on to the Antarctic Peninsula, via Wild Point on Elephant Island, on through the Gerlache Strait and reached the furthest south that we could go without breaking ice (65 degrees South). After some interesting “on land” expeditions we sailed north up through Drakes Passage, round The Horn and into the quiet waters of the Beaver Channel leading into Ushuaia. From there we flew back to Buenos Aires and finally home. 

In Buenos Aires we caught up with some more recent history, visiting the balcony where Evita Peron addressed the nation (now immortalised by Madonna ) and La Recolletta Cemetery, where she was finally buried. BA is also renowned for Tango performed everywhere in the township of La Bocca, which also hosts Marradona’s local football team.

Down in Trelew, where we embarked on our ship the Andrea, there is an enclave of Welsh heritage dating from the nineteenth century, when Welsh tin miners were welcome immigrants to the area and hymns in local chapels are still sung in Welsh. Andrea is a 1964 Swedish passenger vessel, carrying 30 passengers, 15 crew, and two zodiac inflatables for disembarking and cruising.

On our sail south to the Falklands, we started to see many of the seabirds which follow the ships in the South Atlantic; Storm Petrels, Fulmars, Prions and the most enigmatic of all, the Wandering Albatross with its 13 foot wingspan. Our first stop in the Falklands was a farm on the Western Island, where black browed albatross share their nesting sites with rock hopper penguins. Residing in this area is the Striated Caracara or ‘Johnny Rook’ as he is known locally. This is a rook the size of an eagle, but with attitude and will quite happily take on Skua twice his size. Ed bravely laid in front of one to get a good shot, the resulting expression is ‘Johnny’ sizing Ed up for breakfast. 

We also had time to revisit the recent history of the 1982 Falklands War battle fields and see Bluff Cove, Engineer’s Ridge and the terrain that the Para’s had to ‘yomp’ over after the loss of the Galahad - an absolutely amazing feat, especially in the dark. Visiting the capital Stanley we ended with sausage, mash & mushy peas in a typical local pub.

Sailing further south to South Georgia the weather turned distinctly chilly with snow flurries on the sun deck and Sooty Albatross joining the throng following us down. Large slab icebergs started to appear on the horizon and then South Georgia hove into view, With its snow capped 9,000 feet ridge rising straight out of the sea, it was difficult to see how Shackleton, Worsley & Crean had managed to conquer them to find help in the Norwegian whaling station of Gritviken. In order to get a feel of this, Ed joined a small party from the ship which recreated part of the walk including tobogganing down into Gritviken when they had cleared the summit

Meanwhile, I went with others to a large king penguin rookery where as well as the comical brown fluffy chicks, known as ‘Oakum Boys’ we were very surprised to find reindeer, left to roam free by the Norwegian Whalers who abandoned the island in the 1950’s. The following day we both visited a king penguin rookery with 200,000 breeding pairs and their chicks; in all, half a million penguins! Although we have the photographs, nothing can convey the noise and SMELL of that many creatures whose only diet is raw fish!  

Other wildlife on the island included elephant, fur and Weddell seals, gentoo, macaroni and adelie penguins. Adelie penguins were named after the explorer’s wife, hope she was flattered!  Although the island is 100 miles long, it only has a population of two, who run the Post Office. We did post some cards there and were lucky that the James Clarke Ross (British Research Vessel) was in port to take our mail on to the Falklands. The other ‘must visit’ place is Shackleton’s Grave in the Whalers Cemetery. Here the ship’s company all had a tot of rum and following tradition, toasted the Boss with half and poured the remainder over his grave.

We arrived at Elephant Island at 3am in the morning in an absolute ‘hoolly’. Our Russian captain bravely nudged into the bay where Shackleton’s men survived under upturned lifeboats for 5 months. Although the beach had been washed away, we could get an impression of what they endured. From there we continued south to the Antarctica Peninsula, with the weather becoming colder and even larger icebergs appearing all around.

After negotiating the Gerlache Strait, we arrived at Port Lockroy. This was a British Antarctic Survey Station that was vacated in 1962. However it looks as though the inhabitant’s just walked out and put the key under the mat to keep the nesting gentoos out. Long john’s still hang over an antiquated range, Doris Day still adorns the bar and huge tins of Duff’s Custard still reside in the larder. There is a full work shop and tin bath in the annex along with a HBM diplomatic bag, perhaps evidence of more secret activities.

Wildlife in Antarctica is probably less dense than on South Georgia but included all species of penguins. We particularly liked the little Chinstraps happily hopping along their penguin highways and were able to witness a change- over of parents guarding the nest. We noticed here that to cover large distances at sea, penguins porpoise like dolphins. This is also to avoid their main predator, that we briefly caught sight of, the dreaded leopard seal, which recently caused the death of a British scientist in Antarctica.. One of the most peculiar looking birds we sighted was the Snowy Sheathbill, which is the only non web footed bird in the Antarctic. It’s beautiful pristine, white feathers are topped by an ugly vulture’s head.

It was here that we reached our furthest point south (65 degrees) and with solid ice stretching ahead of us we had to reluctantly retrace our steps through the Gerlache Strait. After stopping for a swim in the volcanic caldera of Pendulum Island we turned north towards the infamous Drakes Passage. By this time we’d been on the ship for nearly 3 weeks and had our sea legs, although were somewhat alarmed by great crashes of glass and crockery coming from the galley. At 2am in the morning we rounded the great toothed rocks of the Horn and entered the calm of the Beagle Channel, to the frontier town of Ushuaia and home.

Eddy Lane ARPS, DPAGB, EFIAP & Pam Lane ARPS, DPAGB, EFIAP